To help you plan your spooky pub crawl, we've ranked them according to their fear factor — from the harmless to the horrifying.

Do you dare tackle them all?

6. Silent Woman

Silent Woman pub in Slaithwaite

Nabbs Lane, Slaithwaite

Fear rating: What's all the fuss about?

You might have spotted the headless woman on the sign for the Silent Woman in Slaithwaite — local legend claims one of the earliest landlords cut off his wife’s head whereupon her decapitated body ran outside just as a horse and cart drove past. The animal reared and bolted and ever since horses have refused to pass that fateful spot.

Drinkers at the Blackmoorfoot pub thought there was something strange about the young man who wandered in late at night.

But they realised there was something even stranger when he left – and his footprints in the snow stopped at a door boarded up many years ago.

The-then landlord David Dobson said: “I know what we saw and it was certainly strange.

“But it’s not the first funny thing to happen. Every member of staff who has worked here has got a story, about footsteps in the upstairs rooms when no-one is there, or sightings of a man in a flat cap sitting in a corner, or impressions that someone else is in a room." Spooky stuff.

4. The Fleece

The Fleece Inn, Westgate, Elland.

Westgate, Elland

Fear rating: Goosebumps and involuntary shudders.

There are some grisly stories associated with this Elland pub, according to family history resource Ancestry.

A fight between a traveller and a local conman in the late 19th century saw one of the men bleed to death on the pub’s staircase.

Despite numerous attempts, nothing could remove the bloody stain and it became a prominent feature in the pub.

The grounds are also said to be home to Old Leathery Coit — a headless ghost in a battered leather coat that, according to legend, take up a seat on a carriage pulled by equally headless horses.

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3. The Three Nuns (now Miller and Carter Steakhouse)

The Three Nuns pub, Mirfield, and inset, paranormal investigators using a Ouija board at the pub

Leeds Road, Mirfield

Fear rating: Feel your neck hair standing on end.

In 1985, “supernatural disturbances” were reported by workmen during renovation work. These included doors mysteriously opening and closing and the appearance of a shadowy figure resembling a woman with a veiled face.

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It was later reported that an exorcism was carried out in 1991.

2. Royal and Ancient

Royal and Ancient, Colne Bridge (Image: Tim Green/Flickr)

Dalton Bank Road, Colne Bridge

Fear rating: You'll need someone's hand to hold

The building, which dates from the 1930s, replaced an earlier pub, the Spinners Arms, which on February 14 1818 witnessed a mill fire that claimed the lives of 17 girls, aged from nine to 18.

At the time, a cotton mill owned by Thomas and Law Atkinson stood opposite the Spinners Arms. During night-shifts the workforce, many of them children, were locked in overnight.

Writer Kai Roberts, author of Haunted Huddersfield, takes up the story: “On one such occasion, a boy named James Thornton was sent to the carding room to fetch roving, equipped with the naked flame of a candle rather than the glass lantern expressly provided for this purpose.

“Tragically, the boy dropped the candle, which ignited a pile of nearby cotton and due to the great quantity of combustible material at the factory, the blaze quickly developed into an inferno.

“Finding all the doors locked, some of those inside managed to escape by means of ladders but others succumbed to the smoke and confusion. Out of 26 people working that night, only nine survived.”

The bodies of the 17 victims were taken to an impromptu mortuary in the cellar of the Spinners Arms.

A newspaper said the corpses were “in so mutilated a state as to render it impossible for their nearest friends to recognise them”.

In recent times, the Royal and Ancient has been “bedevilled by poltergeist-type activity,” says Kai.

Glasses have been thrown across the bar without any apparent cause and there have been plagues of blowing light-bulbs.

A staff member previously told the Examiner: “There’s something about the cellar. It’s nothing good or bad but I always get the feeling that there’s somebody there watching me."

Gulp.

1. Shoulder of Mutton

Shoulder of Mutton, Holmfirth (Image: Photo: Kenneth Allen)

Dunford Road, Holmfirth

Fear rating: Pack a spare pair of pants and prepare to look terror in the face

A lodger complained of sleepless nights due to door handles rattling and the sound of footsteps in empty rooms — then two years later, a family living at the pub experienced poltergeist activity and saw a “phantom”.

The landlord reported being woken at 4.30am by a glow in his bedroom. Looking over to the dressing table, he saw the figure of a woman.